Download speeds of GSM & 3GSM networks

ARCchart is selling a new report entitled Mobile Broadband Performance of Carrier Networks.  I can't personally justify the purchase, but I notice this wonderful graph in their sample.

ARCchart gave mobile users free speed test applications, first for iPhone beginning in August 2008, then for Android and BlackBerry.  By June 2009, they had over 2 million tests across 268 wireless operators in 103 different countries.  For this graph, the data was filtered to focus on major urban areas.  That left 648K individual test results which were used to form the graph above.

What does this tell us?

• First, 2G GSM data rates are usually 50-60 Kbps.
• While EDGE data rates might go as high as 250 Kbps, a good bet is 140-200 Kbps.
• And finally, deployed 3GSM networks are good for 600 Kbps to perhaps 1.4 Mbps.
• Anything faster is extremely unlikely (at least as of 2Q09).

In a world of endless hype, it's nice to have some real data.

Comments

[Alan Little]

On HSDPA on o2 Germany's network in Munich, my laptop routinely reports around 150 kiloBYTES per second (so around 1.2 Mbps); I've seen peaks at a bit over 250 (2.0 Mbps), but not often.

[Mp3 Touch Screen]

Download speed really matters sometimes.It pays to have a superfast internet speed.